Life of Pi: To Read or to Watch … That’s the Question, Isn’t it?

Sarabeth and I sat down to watch Life of Pi less than an hour after I finished reading the book. Having read the book of course, I was extremely excited for the movie – and curious as to how it had maintained just a PG rating.

I know some of my readers have yet to see the movie, or even read the book. Or maybe you’ve seen it, but not read it or visa-versa. So you’re wondering, is it worth reading or is it worth watching?

Allow me to share my thoughts on both written and visual depictions of the story by Yann Martel.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Let me tell you, the first few sentences had me hooked. Now, let me make clear to you: I’m not blind to the fact that this book’s cover may have well been a picture of those “Coexist” bumper stickers. (Somebody pointed out at church recently that we already do coexist, so what’s the point of the sticker?)

I read books with many different hats on. I found myself having to switch hats on many different occasions while reading this piece of work.

As a blogger and book reviewer, I couldn’t wait to share this exciting read with my readers.

As an author, I learned many  new tricks from Mr. Martel, and am indebted to his bravery of venturing into new territories, and am awed by his storytelling abilities. He truly has proved himself a master of fiction.

As a husband, I sounded like this throughout the last two weeks: “Sarabeth, this book has a lot of potential” … “Sarabeth, I don’t agree with his religious outlook, but he’s such a great writer, I don’t care!” … “Umm… this book is really gory. You might not be able to read it” … “I just threw up” … “I just cried like a baby.” … “Finished. Let’s start the movie.”

But as a Christian, I was not blinded to the overt inclusivistic themes of the book.

(To be sure, the movie hammered those themes much more than the book did.)

I will say that it was extremely fascinating to hear the account of Christianity retold through the eyes of a Hindu/Muslim (yes, the main character Pi subscribes to both religions, plus Christianity).

I am a huge proponent of seeing the world (and God) through the eyes of non-Christians, which is one reason why I think it’s pointless for Christians to only read theology-based books, or listen to only Christian music.

There are so many passages from the book I wanted to share on this post to you all, but space (and time) limit me. So for the sake of story, I truly hope many of you get a chance to read this book. I would be remiss in not warning you however, as I hinted above, that the book is extremely gory at times, and could be overly upsetting to many animal-lovers.

Life of Pi directed by Ang Lee. If anything stood in my way from watching the movie, it would have been director Ang Lee’s weak reputation as a movie director. Need I say more than 2003′s all-time disaster Hulk? That, and his insistance on being controversial, i.e. Brokeback Mountain.

But people have redeemed themselves before. Everyone deserves another chance.

I think Ang Lee did the story more harm than good. I don’t know if it was his decision to add all the weird New Age-y special effects, which really served as nothing more than a New Age mini-sermon disrupting the story, or Hollywood’s insistance to cash out on the 3d rage. Either way, the exagerated color schemes and light shows were all for naught, in my opinion.

I never felt that sense of hopelessness and fear and desperation that we should have felt from Pi since falling into the lifeboat. There was never that Cast Away feel of being alone and missing the life that has forgotten you thousands and thousands of miles away.

Danny Boyle, director of 127 Hours would have been a shoe-in for this project. He knows how to make the audience thirsty for a single drop of water. With a certain, magical way of filmmaking, he can trap every audience member’s hand between a rock and a wall, and convince us all to long for a knife to saw off our arm. That’s exactly the kind of director Life of Pi needed.

I would suggest watching the movie if you simply can’t get to the book. Because, in Lee’s defense, he does stay true to the story, despite his weird detours and out-of place special effects.

In summary. Despite my disagreement with Yann Martel’s vision of God, I will eagerly anticipate his next book.

I think Ang Lee has run out of chances with me.

What are your thoughts? Do you prefer the book or the movie?

Lincoln’s Birthday and the Chase for His Killer

In honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and in the interest of my home state, California’s largest manhunt currently taking place, I could think of no other book to recommend than this today.

For the average reader, a good book comes across their lap every so often and a great book lands there every other blue moon. For a more-than-average reader like myself, the likelihood of a great book opening itself up is much higher.

MANHUNT: THE TWELVE DAY CHASE FOR LINCOLN’S KILLER by James L. Swanson is one such book that I would like to share with you all. You may be asking why I’m recommending a book about a piece of history everyone already knows about front and back. Well for starters, it doesn’t take many pages to learn that you didn’t know the whole story. And secondly, if you’re one of those people, like myself, who wishes you could hop in a time machine and witness climatic moments in history, this book is your portal.

I read the assassination account to Sarabeth and we were both near tears, which is saying how vivid the retelling actually is. I felt like I could reach out and touch the back of President Lincoln’s head as Booth snuck into the vestibule to pull the infamous trigger firing off the shot the nation still hears today.

Furthermore, Manhunt turns into a rapid cat-and-mouse chase as Union soldiers ride through the thickets and country roads, passing Booth by merely yards not once but twice. Booth, with a broken leg, must employ his greatest acting talents to convince people that no, he is indeed not the assassin-at-large, but just a desperate Confederate soldier trying to hold his army together and continue the fight, so will you please take me in for the night?

It makes me wonder if Christopher Jordan Dorner is going through anything similar as I write this.

I would compare this book to CATCH ME IF YOU CAN by Frank W. Abagnale. They’re separated by a hundred years, the crimes committed in each tale are vastly different, but if you’ve seen the brilliant movie version of Catch Me, you know the kind of butterfly-feeling I’m talking about when the hunted is being ruthlessly pursued by the hunter, demanding justice to fall on his prey, yet you’re torn because something sinister inside of you is rooting for the bad guy, not so he can get away, but so that the story can continue.

It was a sad parting when I read the final pages of MANHUNT, but I am thankful that its sequel is sitting on my shelf, about the chase for Jefferson Davis. History buffs and thrill seekers alike would be doing themselves a gross misdeed by overlooking this work of art.

The book contains graphic imagery of stabbings and surgical procedures on victims of bloody crimes. Those with squeamish stomaches might want to be ready to skip a few pages.

What are your favorite history books that put you right in the action?

A Reluctant Book Recommendation

When a meteor hits the moon and knocks it closer in orbit to the earth, nothing will ever be the same.

Worldwide tidal waves.

Earthquakes.

Volcanic eruptions.

And that’s just the beginning.

So is the premise for a young adult novel I just finished reading. No apocalyptic-nut can resist a book that has that as its description. Maybe it was because of The Hunger Games that made me feel like I’m not too old to be reading this teen book. Or maybe I just like really, really good stories about the end of the world. Either way, Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer didn’t disappoint.

To be sure, it disappointed in a few ways, but not the way I expected. I’ll get to that in a minute. The story flowed smoothly, the characters were likable and believable, and it was one of those fictional books that got into my head – like, really got in there. To the point where I was nervous about the refrigerator being left open for too long the other night because of how important it was to keep our food rations fresh.

Written in the style of Anne Frank, the book felt real, and intense, and sometimes scary. Yes, it had me planning ahead for what would happen if the moon did get knocked closer to the earth. Good news is, according to this book, my wife and I will be safe in Kentucky. You Floridians and Californians will mostly be wiped out. Good bye New England and parts of India. Gone.

But the reason I’m reluctant to recommend this book to teens is because of the unnecessary political and religious agenda that the author spews out onto its pages, soiling this otherwise flawless book.

Pfeffer spends a good deal of the first part of the book bashing President Bush, making one of the main characters, a mother, yell at him whenever he’s on the TV calling him an idiot and saying she hates him. What else are the mother’s kids to do but laugh and agree? To be fair, I wouldn’t think it would be necessary for an author to pull the same stunt against Obama or Clinton or Carter. I just hate to see such outright political propaganda spelled out so clearly in a teen fiction book.

(This book was selected for the ALA Best Book for Young Adults amongst many other prestigious honors, by the way.)

But praise be to Pfeffer, her writing style and suspenseful plot was just enough to keep me from throwing the book away. It has a few bad words throughout, but nothing overt or out of proper context. Though it doesn’t feature Twilight-type sex-praising, it does feature teens making out a few times.

But the saddest part about the book for me was the author’s apparent bump-ins with Christians in her life. It reads clearly that she has a deep disdain for Christians and our beliefs. Judging by the book, I feel like she’s only met the type of Christians who’s only answer to every terrible crisis in life is to pray about it and be happy – always happy. The Christians featured in her book are shallow and naive, on purpose, I’m sure.

One Christian teenager the author portrays in the book starves herself because she feels it is God’s will for her life. If only Pfeffer knew that the Bible does not condone such awful behavior and any Christian who would do that would be/ought to be condemned by the church. A reverend comes across as a holier-than-thou jerk, who turns out to be hoarding his congregation’s food during the famine. His answer to everyone’s plea was always, “I’ll pray for you.” Luther would have had a hay day with this guy.

In fact, her “Christians” portray the exact people Jesus spent much of His ministry rebuking. At least this book can be an eye-opener for some of us as to how the world may perceive us, and may we change our ways.

I never want to avoid recommending a book because of any author’s beliefs, just like I would hate it if people refused to read my book because of my beliefs. But I do want to make readers aware of them, and help people to read (and write) regardless of their personal agendas. Art is art, and this book is a work of beauty, at least in a secular sense.

I hear there are two others in the series, and I’ll be grabbing them soon, and I’m sure I’ll be reveling every page – well, most of them, anyway.

Purchase it here on Amazon.

Follow what else I’m reading on Goodreads.

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Seeking Artist for Children’s Book

I wrote a children’s book complete with stick-figure drawings, which you’ll have a chance to look at in a moment. I’m seeking a publisher or agent to get it printed and published, but in order to really sell it, I need an artist to do the artwork. If anyone is interested (publishers, agents, artists), please email me at adoptingjames@aol.com.

Below I have pasted the manuscript which you are all welcome to look at. Please feel free to leave some feedback, keeping in mind that I might send publishers to this post to see if there is enough interest built up to make this book marketable.

The Giving Tree was one of my favorite picture books growing up. So it makes sense that if I’m going to make my own children’s book, it would be inspired by Shel Silversteen’s masterpiece. I’m not much of an illustrator, so stick-figures is really the best I can do. But since we’re all about stories here, this little story can’t be told without pictures. Check out A Warm Cup of String by Andrew Toy.

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Storytelling Part 1: Motivation

Cindy struggled in the chair she was bound to with ropes. She yelled out at her captor, “Why do you hate me so much? Why do you want me dead?”

Her captor, a tall, leggy woman in spandex tauntingly caulked her gun and said with a smile, “Because you destroyed my one chance of being the greatest runner in the world. Because you stole my gold medal. And now, you will pay.”

Really? Never mind whether this is good storytelling or not… is it at all realistic? Would someone really murder their sports competitor? Doubtful. Would you be driven to threaten someone who bested you at an event? I truly hope not.

When it comes to writing and developing characters, you need always to keep one word in mind: motivation.

Motivation is helpful in two fronts. Motivation:

a) defines characters, and

b) pushes the story along

Think about it. In order for the beautiful harmonizing of a solid story and lovable characters to occur, several things must happen, but the main thing is motivation.

Think Lord of the Rings. Not only is the story itself driven by the motivation to destroy the ring, but the characters are defined so clearly because of that motivation.

Think Finding Nemo. The title itself is the motivation behind the story and the characters. 

Motivation is nearly everything in a story. Why am I writing this? Why is the bad guy bad? Why did my protagonist just do that?

Motivation.

But the catch is, the motivation must be believable. Now, this is where it gets a little subjective. Certain members of my household like the show Once Upon a Time. I don’t. (Though I do recommend it as clean and safe family viewing.) And the sole reason is because the motivations behind the characters is, to me, completely unbelievable.

The Queen wants to curse the whole fairy tale world because Snow White got her prince? That’s like saying the girl whom you detested in high school got married before you, therefore you’re going to go on a shooting rampage at the mall.

Folks, writers – don’t make your characters bad just to be bad. Don’t dwell on it, but give your readers a reason why they’re bad. The Toy Story franchise does this best with their antagonists (need I say more than Lotso/Daisy?).

Likewise, give your readers a reason to believe that your protagonists really are good, and ask yourself the question: Why is my protagonist good?

Another trick: To help keep your story on track, ask yourself at the end of each scene, Why? Why did this scene just happen? Why did my character just say/do that? You ought to be able to answer confidently with the ending in mind so that you’re always heading in that direction.

When I wrote The Man in the Box, I was always prepared to answer someone who might ask me, “Why did you write this book?”

You should be too.

Let me be your writing coach or editor. Click here for more information.

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The Questions Teen Books Ask

Teen books seem to be the fad today. From Twilight to Pretty Little Liars, kids, teenagers, and adults alike are pouring into this up-and-coming phenomenon of young adult fiction novels. Many, like the aforementioned are damaging to young hearts and minds and serve as nothing more than gateways into the darker territories of adult romance books, which also are on the rise.

But then there are other teen books on the other side of the pendulum that may prove to be more worthy of youngster’s attentions. Books like Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Neal Shusterman’s Unwind trilogy can cause readers to decide what kind of world they would like to live in, and how and if to ever challenge authority.

Books like these can really cause bright minds to analyze the world in which we live and how to best respond to the inevitable social issues we may find ourselves engaging with.

Shusterman’s Unwind trilogy – though I haven’t read the final two in the series – deals with, in some underhanded ways, the topic of abortion – or more accurately – the value (or lack of value) of a human’s life. It’s set in a future world after the Second Civil War has been fought. That war, like its predecessor wasn’t about unification or freedom, but about reproductive rights. The outcome of the war: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until the age of thirteen.

The phenomenal and nearly-flawless Hunger Games trilogy also deals with the value of human life, set in a dystopian future America, where the government – or Capitol – celebrate death as entertainment. The hero of the trilogy – and ultimately author Collins – does a superb job at causing her audience, both the Capitol and her readers, to squirm at our own acceptance of our desensitization of human loss.

Sadly, one needs not look any further than our own American government where the abortion fighters are loosing ground almost on a daily basis. Hollywood – and especially TV – are continually pushing the envelope to create the most violent, bloody, and – scariest of all – realistic  forms of entertainment they can get away with.

Many people may be appalled that teen fiction asks kids if they are willing to stand up against authority and – in the cases of these books – cause uprisings if need be. I assure you, I am not in favor of people refusing to give allegiance to the flag because they don’t feel like it. But we are entering into a world where each day, the lines between good and evil are blurred more and more in the eyes of our authority figures, and ultimately to those who are under their authority.

Books like these, I believe, are good for kids – and anyone, really – to read especially as our governments grow more corrupt, citizens are swayed by evil ideas and acceptances, and I believe there will be a day when standing up for what is right, and true, and honorable, may be the difference between life and death.

Books like these ask you: Are you ready?

Please share your thoughts below. Are these books just causing unnecessary paranoia? Are we really headed toward a dystopia? Should teens be exposed to such questions? Is the government and America as a whole still relatively clear on what’s good and what’s evil?

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Our Fear of What is to Come

I just finished quite possibly, one of the most terrifying books I’ve ever read. Now, I’m not one to seek out scary books or movies, but this one isn’t scary in the traditional sense. There’s no zombies or blood-sucking monsters in it. In fact, there really aren’t even any scary parts. But this book messed with me psychologically.

When people would ask me what my biggest fear is, my answer was always snakes. But as of the reading of this book, One Second After by William Forstchen, I now will have to change my answer to EMP weapons.

I would be remiss if I didn’t confess that this book caused me to sin by worrying about the future. More than once while reading it, I laid awake in bed wondering out loud how we will prepare for this inevitable strike on our country. “After all,” I’d say to my poor, tired wife, “everything points to this happening. The military’s being cut back, the president’s got his own little agenda of uniting the whole world and not defending us from our enemies…” And then I would go into this barrage of ways we can stockpile on canned goods, save up plenty of paper cash, and even trade our cars in for old junkers.

What is an EMP weapon? It’s an electromagnetic pulse weapon that, when shot above any particular region, it explodes high up in the atmosphere and the fallout destroys – absolutely obliterates – any electrical circuit and devise. That means computers get shut off, most (if not all) cars made after 1970 shut down, planes die midair and crash.

But that’s not the scariest part. We’re the most spoiled, pampered nation in the history of the world, which means that without the electricity we daily rely on, we will literally not know how to function, which means, if this weapon is fired on us, within a matter of mere months, we will be sent back to the dark ages.

But while reading this book, I couldn’t help but recall Matthew 20:16 where Jesus says, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” Suddenly, according to the prophetic vision in this book, the richest people in our nation were poorer than mud, and the poorest people (those who have lived off the land) were suddenly the richest, with their skills and street-smart expertise.

It’s just too bad I never gave thought to Matthew 6:25 (“Therefore I tell you, do not worry…”). I’m going to have to really remember that one when I’m on a plane next week.

One Second After chronicles the story of a widowed father of two daughters who is just trying to keep his family alive. There were some parts that are emotional, and the author does a great job capturing the emotions of the characters. The problem I did have with the book was the dialogue. A lot of times it came across as though the modern-day characters were speaking like people from the Bible or Lord of the Rings.

Why would I suggest this book if it caused me so much worry? Because I believe there’s something to be said for being prepared for the future. Of course, we don’t know what the future holds, but men, it is our number one responsibility to protect and defend our families. We don’t quadruple-lock our doors, but we still lock them. In the same way I’m not saying we need to be become like those extreme couponers and hoard the market’s canned goods.

I guess what I’m saying is, don’t get too comfortable with life as it is. Because whether we are struck with an EMP weapon, an atomic bomb, or suffer any other type of catastrophe, there will be a day when Jesus Christ and His Kingdom will come and rest itself here on earth, and we will live forever in a world unhindered by sin, death, fear, or anything else that keeps us awake at night. For we who belong to Christ, are aliens in this destructive world. But while we’re here, we must be prepared to protect what has been given us, starting with the Gospel message, then our families, and our friends and neighbors.

The book contains some strong language.

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